§ 92. BAPTISM. 485
to the service, and exposes him to punishment for disobedience.
Proselyted heretics were, however, always confirmed by the laying on of hands, when received into the catholic church. They were treated like penitents. Leo the Great says of them, that they have received only the form of baptism without the power of sanctification.'
The most eminent Greek fathers of the Nicene age, on the other hand, adhered to the position of Cyprian and Firmilian. Athanasius, Gregory l!^azianzen, Basil, and Cyril of Jerusalem regarded, besides the proper form, the true tiinitarian faith on the part of the baptizing community, as an essential conditioi. of the validity of baptism. The 45th of the so-called Apostolic Canons threatens those with excommunication who receivec converted heretics without rebaptism. But a milder view gradually obtained even in the East, which settled at last upoE a compromise.
The ecumenical council of Constantinople in 381, in its seventh canon (which, however, is wanting in the Latin versions, and is perhaps later), recognizes the baptism of the Arians, the Sabbatians (a sort of Novatians, so called from their leader Sab batius), the Quartodecimanians, the Apollinarians, but reject ed the baptism of the Eunomiaus, " who baptize with only one immersion," the Sabellians, '*■ who teach the Son-Fatlierhood (utoTraTopta)," the Montanists (probably because they did not at that time use the orthodox baptismal formula), and all other heretics. These had first to be exorcised, then instructed, and then baptized, being treated therefore as heathen proselytes.' The Trullan council of 692, in its 95th canon repeated this canon, and added the Nestorians, the Eutychians, and the followers of Dioscurus an 1 Severus to the list of those heretics who may be received into the church on a mere recantation of their error. These decisions lack principle and consistency.
The catechetical instruction which preceded the baptism of
' Epist. 129 ad Nicet. c. 7: "Qui baptismura ab hsereticis acceperunt . . . sola mvocatione Spiritus S. per impoaitionem manuum confirmandi sunt, quia formam tantum baptismi sine sanctificationis virtute sumpserunt."
* Comp. Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, ii. 26 ; Mattes, TJeber die Ketzertaufe, ia the Tiibingen Quartalschrift, 1849, p. 580.
486 THIRD TERIOD. A.D. 811-590.
proselytes and adults, and followed tlie baptism c»f cluldreii, ended witli a public examination [scriitinium) before tlie congregation. The Creed — in the East the Nicene, in the West the Apostles' — was committed to memory and professed bj the candidates or the god-parents of the children.
The favorite times for baptism for adults were Easter and Pentecost, aiid in the East also Epiphany. In the fourth cen tury, wdien the mass of the population of the Roman empire went over from heathenism to Christianity, the baptisteries were thronged with proselytes on those high festivals, and the baptism of such masses had often a very imposing and solemn character. Children were usually incorporated into the church by baptism soon after their birth.
Immersion continued to be the usual form of l)a])tism, especially in the East ; and the threefold immersion in the name of the Trinity. Yet Gregory the Great permitted also the single immersion, which was customary in Spain as a testimony against the Arian polytheism.'
With baptism, several preparatory and accompanying ceremonies, some of them as early as the second and third centuries, were connected ; which were significant, but overshadowed and obscured the original simplicity of the sacrament. These were exorcism, or the expulsion of the devil ; "^ breathing upon the candidates,' as a sign of the communication of the Holy Ghost, according to John xx. 22 ; the touching of the ears,* with the exclamation : Ephphatha! — from Mark vii. 34, for the opening of the spiritual understanding ; the sign of the cross made upon the forehead and breast, as the mark of the soldier
' Greg. Ep. i. 43, to Bishop Leander of Seville: "Dura in tribus subsistentiis una substantia est, rcprehensibile esse nullatenus potest iiiftintein in baptisniate vel ter vel scmel mergere : quando et in tribus mersionibus personarum trinitas, et in una potest personarum singularitas dosignari. Scd quia nunc usque ab h^reticis infans in baptisraate tertio merge))atur, liendum apud vos non esse censeo, ne dum mersiones numerant, divinifateni dividant." From this we see, at the same time^ that even in infant baptism, and among heretics, immersion was the custom. Yet in the nature of the case, sprinkhng, at least of weak or sick children, as in the bap tismus dinicoi-u}n, especially in northern climates, came early into use.
=■ Comp. vol. i. p. 3'JO,
' Insufllare, efj-fuaav.
* Sacramentum aoertioniE.